Saturday, March 26, 2016

Do Our United States Still Exist?

Hat Tip PCR

Content edited

Do The United States Still Exist? — Paul Craig Roberts

To
answer the question that is the title, we have to know of what the US
consists

Are we a special interest ethnic group, a collection of buildings and resources, a land mass with boundaries, or are we our Constitution?Clearly what differentiates the US from other countries is the US Constitution. The Constitution defines us as a people

Without the Constitution we would be a different country. Therefore, to lose our Constitution is to lose our country

Does our Constitution still exist?

Let us examine the document and come to a conclusion

Our Constitution consists of a description of a Republic with three independent
branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, each with its own
powers, and the Bill of Rights incorporated as constitutional
amendments

The Bill of Rights describes the civil liberties of
citizens that cannot be violated by our government

Two articles
describe the major powers of Congress, and both articles have been
breached

The Constitution’s grant of “all legislative powers” to
Congress has been overturned by executive orders and signing statements

The Presidents used executive orders to legislate, and used
signing statements to render sections of laws passed by Congress and
signed by the President into non-enforced status, for example border control immigration laws

Legislative authority has also been lost by delegating to executive branch
officials the power to write the regulations that implement the laws
that are passed

The right that Section 8 gives to Congress to declare
war has been usurped by the executive branch

Thus, major powers given
to Congress were lost to the executive branch

The First Amendment has been compromised by executive branch claims of “National Security,” by extensive "Classifications" and 4 million government security clearances exceeding the population of Norway rendering government accountability under FOIA Freedom of Information Act moot

The right of assembly and public protest are overturned
by arrests, bullying, tear gas, clubs, rubber bullets, water cannons, and jail
terms

Free speech is also limited by political correctness and taboo
topics

Dissent shows signs of gradually becoming criminalized

The
Fourth Amendment is a dead letter amendment. In its place we have
warrantless searches, SWAT team home invasions, strip and cavity
searches at Transportation Nodes, warrantless seizures of computers, cell phones, their content, and the
loss of all privacy to warrantless universal spying

The Fifth Amendment is a dead letter amendment. The criminal justice system relies on self-incrimination as plea bargains are self-incrimination produced by psychological torture, and plea bargains are the basis of conviction in 97% of all felony cases

Moreover,
physical torture is a feature of the “War on Terror” despite its
illegality under both US statute and International Law, also
experienced by inmates in the US prison system

The Fifth Amendment’s protection against deprivation of life, liberty, and property without due process of law has been lost to indefinite detention, executive assassination, and property takings without compensation

The
“War on Terror” introduced secret evidence and secret witnesses,
making it impossible for a defendant and his attorney to defend against undisclosed evidence

The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of excessive bail and torture are routinely violated. It is another dead letter amendment

It is paradoxical that every Civil Liberty in the Bill of Rights has been
lost to a police state except for the Second Amendment, the gun rights
of citizens, which have been compromised and eliminated in certain jurisdictions

An armed citizenry is inconsistent with a Police State,
which the US now is

Other aspects of our legal protections were overturned, such as the long standing rule that crime requires intent

Attorney-client privilege was lost

Our Civil Liberties are often said to be “Natural Rights” to which we are entitled. However, in historical fact, Civil Liberty is a human achievement that required centuries of struggle from Alfred the Great Common Law and the Magna Carta, before and beyond

Today law as a shield of the people has been lost

The loss was gradual over time and culminated in the George W. Bush and Obama regime assaults on habeas corpus and due process

We cut down the law so that we could better chase after the MafiaWe cut down the law so that we could better chase after drug users

We cut down the law so we could better chase after tax cheats

We cut down the law so that we could better chase after child abusers

We cut down the law so that we could better chase after “terrorists”We cut down the law so that we could better chase after whistleblowers

We cut down the law so that we could better cover up government crimesToday the law is cut down

Any one of us can be arrested on bogus charges and be helpless to do anything about it

Public defenders became useless Government regulators became uselessGovernment courts became useless

ACLU is not defending the civil liberties in the Bill of Rights that
protect us from the abuse of government power, but newly invented “civil
rights” not in the Constitution, such as “abortion rights,”
the right to homosexual marriage, and rights to preferential treatment
for preferred minorities

President Obama declared his power to execute citizens by
executive branch decision alone, without due process and conviction in
court, and it produced barely audible protest

Historically, a government that can, without due process, throw a
citizen into a dungeon or summarily execute him is considered to be a
tyranny, not a democracy